Him And Her
by Inu Kaiba
Summary: AU It was a normal day for Sango. But in less than two days, her mother and brother are dead. And then Houshi, Miroku, the young detective is assigned to the cases of these deaths... Just one problem. Sango isn't interested. SM IK
1. Didn't Notice 'Till It Happened

Inu Kaiba: Just a short little ditty to show how much a friendship can mean to someone.

"SANGOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I heard her. I knew she was behind me. And yet I didn't acknowledge it, I just kept walking.

Kagome slapped a hand on my shoulder, panting as she tried to come to a stop. Meanwhile, I just stood there. If I moved away, surely Kagome would fall on top of me.

I don't know why I didn't move. I could have just moved, let her fall and walked away. But that wasn't me, I wasn't the kind of person to leave my friend, any of my friends like that, and since Kagome was my best friend I wouldn't do that.

In the time it looked to mull over this, Kagome had pulled herself together, and was trying to talk to me. "Sango?" she asked, tentatively waiting for a reply.

I gave a mental sigh, and forced the words to come. "Yes?"

"What's up, you've been really distant all day." She said and nodded, shifting her pose to make it look as if she were a master detective that was supposed to know these things.

But, well, she knew me better than anyone else. Why wouldn't she be the first to notice if something went wrong?

"No, everything's fine." I said, making a move in the opposite direction, silently willing myself to just walk off. But I couldn't desert Kagome. By the look on her face, she seemed to have noticed I was uncomfortable about this question. There was an awkward silence between the two, neither willing them self to make the first move.

Kagome finally sank a bit, completely ruining her posture. "Sango, why are you lying to me?"

I took one look at her then and knew she'd call me crazy if I told her I had a bad feeling. And that was all. I had a bad feeling. And this bad feeling wasn't your everyday bad feeling. No. It was one of those, super bad feelings the kind that makes you sick to your stomach, makes you want to cry, makes you want to stop breathing to make it go away. And I knew it was the kind of thing that would result in someone dead.

Who that someone was, I didn't want to find out.

But you see I did.

-

-

It wasn't the lights I noticed first, or the sirens. It was the kids rushing ahead of me. The little kids, the one who always thought police cars and fire trucks being on the scene of an emergency was cool. Truth be told, I was like that when I was little too. But I had never known the repercussions of these vehicles and that people did actually die. I had never seemed to understand the soul purposes of these vehicles, not even at this second. But I learned the hard way. It seemed everyone else who knew the repercussions of what these vehicles symbolized did too.

But that didn't stop the jackasses who had never witnessed pain and suffering, the ones that sat on the couch drinking beer and watching football. They still complained when a siren interrupted their game and they had to turn it up to hear the plays being accounted for as the announcer relayed them play by play. And these days I resent those jerks and their horrible comments toward what can be life saving vehicles. And what can be vehicles that could change your life.

All I knew was when I saw them it wasn't good. That day, I don't know why I dashed after those little kids as if it meant life or death. I'll never understand what gave me the impulse to do so. All I know was I ran after them, and found the police at the scene of a crime I knew for once that the bad feeling was real. Someone had died, or was on the brink of doing so.

And at the time I didn't know it had anything to do with me, or it was the beginning of something that would change my life forever.

-

-

Needless to say I couldn't find a thing out about the accident. I headed home miserable knowing that feeling would stay with me, until I could completely confirm it.

I walked inside and only then did I realize how hungry I was. All that running had truthfully worn me out. I opened the broken screen door and noticed Satsuko, my uncle still hadn't bothered to fix it. Then again, I would be expected to, or he'd say I'm too busy to do it. Typical Satsuko.

Mum would though, when she had the chance. I loved it when she taught me to bake or do some form of woodwork. I loved doing either, because I know they were useful skills I would need when I grew up. But mostly I loved doing it simply because it was with mom, and it seemed that everything she taught me was important. It seemed like mum could do nothing wrong, or rather could do nothing that didn't have some sort of importance.

And then there was Kohaku, my brother. I hoped he would be home, so I could tell him about what happened, and talk to him so we'd be able to figure something out.

I barged in to the kitchen taking no notice of my mom who was currently slaving away at the stove, and walked over to the fridge. I opened the door and sorted through the contents to see if there was anything worth eating.

"Huh, will you look at that? Nothing…"

That's when I felt mom slap me. Not the kind of abusive slap or anything, more like a playful teasing slap, the kind mom would use to get my attention when I pretended to take no notice of her, or simply took no notice at all.

"Sango, dear. You know we always have to run out for groceries at this time of the week in fact we're over due for some grocery shopping. And I just happen to be using the last of the edible food, so we'll have to go right after dinner, if you want lunch tomorrow."

I nodded indicating that I had heard her, and then asked a plain, straight, in your face kind of question. "Mom, where's Kohaku?"

"Sango, dear, I don't know. He hasn't called or anything."

"Alright Mom. Do you have anything remotely edible, that you aren't using for dinner?"

"There is a bag of chips, look in my bag. I brought it home in case you and Kohaku got the munchies, but apparently it will just be you eating it."

I nodded and rooted in her bag until I found the chips. Barbeque. One of the only flavours Kohaku and I both loved. The other was Ketchup.

I dragged my knapsack upstairs with me. I reached my bedroom and threw the door open and heard it slam into the wall, earning another chink in the already pocked place from all the previous times when I didn't think, just threw the door open.

I threw my bag across the room and it miraculously landed by the side of my desk. I walked over and placed the bag of chips down, then reached in the drawer for a pencil and some paper, and placed that on the desktop as well.

I plunked down on the chair just in time to hear the phone ring. "Kohaku!!!" I thought.

I rushed to be the first one to pick up the phone. "Hello?"

The last thing I remember before falling over was that wasn't Kohaku's voice.

That was someone's else's. That was…

-

-

Inu Kaiba: Looks like this isn't a short little ditty after all. It'll be a full fledged chaptered story. This is dedicated to Kandra, and I hope she notices I updated and reviews!!! Please Read and Review to the rest.


	2. Too Many, Too Many Problems

That was the voice of someone I had never heard before. But it wasn't the voice that bothered me. It was what the voice was telling me.

"Hello, is this the Tajiya residence?" The man on the phone didn't sound all to cheery and the background noises startled me. It sounded like he was in a place with a lot of frantic people.

"Why yes it is. May I ask whose calling?" It was then that worry overtook her. Who on earth would be calling her house? Most would say may I speak to your mother, your brother, your father, your uncle. Or they'd use names. Kohaku, Satsuko, Machiko, Tasutsu. She was the one who usually answered the phone, she knew all the voices.

But that wasn't the voice of someone she knew. And that wasn't the way anyone she knew asked to speak to someone. So who was it…?

Her unanswered question was cut short at the mysterious voice spoke once again. "This is Officer Takahashi, if you are standing, would you please sit down? I cannot be sure if you will fall over, and I do not wish another person to."

I just sort of sank into my bed. And my whole mind screamed it couldn't be true, who could have died? Only to be confirmed a second later at the officer's words, "Ms. Tajiya, is it?"

I stuttered over the simple word even I knew so well. "H..hai…"

I couldn't comprehend what he was going to say. But once he said it, I wanted to curl up and die. "Ms. Tajiya, your brother Kohaku Tajiya is dead."

Dead, death. You never truly understand the concept of death. Until it hits you smack in the face and someone you know dies. And there are several steps to understand what a person goes through when coping through any loss. And needless to say, I followed that pattern quite well, he told me later on.

I didn't even respond, until he started yelling in my ear. I wasn;t even thinking, I had just slipped into a blank nothing-ness. "Ms. Tajiya, have you heard anything I've said?"

"My brother is dead." I managed to spit out. It sounded mechanical and lifeless.

"Ms. Tajiya would you find it easier to give the phone to your guardian?"

"One moment please." I said. I sounded more like a robot and less like a human. "I'll put my mother on."

I placed the phone on the bed, and dragged one foot after another out the door, and to the top of the stairs. "MOM!!! PHONE!!!"

Then I dragged myself back in my room. And I plunked down on the bed. And I just sat there. I was in too much of a state of shock to do anything. Subconsciously I still didn't believe he was gone. Who knew this would happen? And all so fast at that, when I said good bye to Kohaku that morning, I hadn't expected it to be the last time I'd see him.

I thought I heard my mother sobbing downstairs, but I didn't really register it. I laid down and my head sort of sunk into the pillow. I just lay there, an incredible fog of depression hanging over me.

I must have fallen asleep, I can't remember lying there for too long.

I woke up to my alarm, stretched, felt better for all of three seconds…

Then realized Kohaku was dead. And crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.

Mother heard my alarm and came upstairs. "Sango, if you don't want to go to school today, I'll completely understand."

My eyes were blank as I stared at her, slowly blinked, then blinked again. Finally a nod came.

"Sango, would you find it easier to transfer schools?"

I blinked again, and nodded again. I sat on the floor, kneeling there.

And then it all hit like a tsunami. It hits and then it rolls back and forth until calming. This was the way the wave of pain hit, except it was more like multiple tsunamis, striking the same place one after another.

She stood up and concluded to herself that Kohaku was still alive, this was all just a cruel prank.

Slinging her backpack with her unfinished homework over her shoulder, she dressed as quickly as possible, gulped down her breakfast and headed out the door. Her mother didn't hear a sound, she was too busy sobbing in her upstairs bedroom.

As I walked, I wondered why Dad and Satsuko hadn't come to talk to me. I concluded that Satsuko had probablyt gone to some party, got himself piss drunk, and was sacked out on the couch, with the other half of the party. All the parties he went to ended with people hitting the floor drunk as a doorknob, and with horrible hangovers after ward.

Dad was a different story however, I had a feeling he hadn't returned from his business trip. I decided to just walk on in silence, and let my thoughts drown in one another.

-

As I was getting something from my locker, Kagome came up and began to speak to me. But because of the way I was running at the moment, it went in one ear and out the other.

"And Sango I was wondering why you weren't there when I came to your house to wait for you. And why didn't you come talk to me this morning. And why didn't you wait up when I yelled wait up to you?"

I slammed my locker door shut and turned away, not even acknowledging Kagome.

Kagome grabbed my arm and pulled me back, then placed both hands on my shoulders and turned me around. "Sango, something is wrong. Don't say everything's hunky dory, because judging from the way your acting it isn't. Please tell me what's wrong."

Before Kagome had even managed to begun her speech, I had fainted. She was the only thing holding me up, and when she removed her arms I dropped to the ground.

A shriek ran through the hallway as Kagome realized her dear friend was unconscious. Everyone turned around to see what had happened, and murmurs of "Some girl fainted" was heard throughout the hall.

Kagome sunk to her knees, and with a firm grip on Sango's shoulders, began shaking her back and forth tears in her eyes. "Sango what the hell is wrong with you, and why won't you wake up?"

I opened my eyes once again to the bright lights of the hallway, and looked up to find Kagome crying over me, shaking my shoulders some more for extra emphasis. She finally withdrew her hands and they fell limply to her side, scraping the ground with her nails as they found their place yet again. I held my arms out tentatively, and as expected Kagome fell right into them.

I wrapped my arms around her back and felt a few tears slide down my cheek too. Needless to say I was still in denial.

"'Ey it's two lesbians making out. If you're going to give us a show, at least take off your clothes first." It was that arrogant InuYasha guy. Kagome stiffened and I felt her pull back. It all happened so fast that the next thing I knew Kagome was standing there, mouth agape, hand held over it with the typical 'oh my god' expression.

She had slapped him. The hand mark proved it. And it was unexpected to. His eyes were wide with shock. And one of his hands rose up to touch his cheek. He didn't even say now. "Don't touch those higher than you, bitch." He muttered before spinning on his heel and walking off.

Kagome was staring at the ground, and we both knew she'd done something wrong.

-

The day went fairly slowly. I spaced out in all my classes, and every class when homework was demanded and not given, when no answer came forth, they all pointed to the door and I sat on the bench near the office until next class. Then I would get up and head to the next class.

The principal didn't notice me all day. Whether it was because I was so quiet sitting there, and I wasn't causing any trouble. Perhaps my mother had called the school letting them know why I'd be so spaced out. But most likely, she was dealing with the day to day trouble makers and had no time for a perfect student like me, who had simply managed to get all incomplete homework assignments in every class that day.

As I headed home down the path, I didn't know what to do anymore. Kagome walked beside me as silent as I was. I had a feeling she was still very shocked about the fact she had hit InuYasha. If it was some regular boy whom had insulted her, and then she had slapped him, she would still be ranting about how much a jerk said guy was. But she wasn't now. I came to the conclusion that perhaps there was something more that she felt towards him then just being in the same school.

We kept walking until we reached my home. I opened the door, but instead of hearing the normal sounds of my mother, I heard nothing.

"Kagome!!!" I called after her. She turned around and walked backwards until she reached the landing and was standing beside me, then slowly turned around. "Yeah?

"Something doesn't feel right…"

"Want me to come in with you?"

"Please do."

Kagome nodded and I slowly eased open the door hearing the hinges squeak, I wished I had oiled them more than anything now. I crept slowly step after step, and turned into the kitchen.

My scream hung in the air long after my body hit the ground.

Inu Kaiba: That was like my longest chapter without an author's note. I wrote it over two days, with the first two or three sentences. XD Oh good lord, I learned a fun lesson today. I learned that other people can be more like a parent to you then your own parents, and I don't like my parents so I was like n.n for good stand in parents. And now I'm appreciative of those people.


	3. I'm Breathing No More, Take Me Away From...

Inu Kaiba: I got an obsession with Haunted here. Thank god I got like four versions, Kitty hath sent them. Oy vey… You know what would be cool is if someone like Aamalie or one of those really excellent cool authors that get a billion reviews would read and review this… That won't happen, but I can always dream!

_**This goes on and off between Narration and First Person. Ok, I'm done informing you, read on.**_

It looked like a scene straight out of a scary movie, something like Gothika or The Ring. And to Sango, it certainly felt like that. At first look it looked like suicide. After all who wouldn't suspect that, if your younger brother, Kohaku in this case had died not even twenty four hours previous?

You could almost hear Haunted in the background, "Still can't find what keeps me here…"

You know when something drastically important to you happens, and you can only hear this song playing around again and again in your head? I felt that way too. The music played on and on. It looked like my family had a stalker and with Kohaku and mother dead in the same twenty four hours thing weren't looking good.

It was almost as if I'd have a stalker soon, threatening the very brink of my existence. It never occurred to me that these very thoughts I was thinking were oh so true and in the end that my family might have had a stalker? Nah, too very unbelievable. A lie fabricated in tangled webs, to intrigue me, that which the idea had done. But I still pushed it away, realization clearing all paths, and no my family did not have a stalker.

I sobbed into Kagome's arms as she stroked my back up and down, the only thing she could do. There were no words exchanged between the two of us, any other friend would have said, "I'm so sorry it happened." Or "I completely understand." But…

A. That would be lying and Kagome would never lie.

B. I hated it when Kagome fabricated it, the truth was Kagome had never seen anyone in her family drop off the face of the earth, and while we both knew her Jii-Chan would stop breathing anytime now, it just wouldn't happen. Kagome was also not emotionally stable enough to handle deaths and I was thankful my friend had not really known my mom and Kohaku. And if Kagome couldn't even handle the death of her old Jii-Chan… She certainly couldn't handle the deaths of the two dearest people to her in the entire world, not in the same twenty four hours. She knew if that happened, that practically all of Kagome's soul would die before her, and it was just a prospect she didn't want to think about.

Kagome and Sango stayed that way until the ambulance and police man Kagome had dialed 9-1-1 about arrived. Sango had been in such utter and complete shock she couldn't say a damn word so Kagome talked for her. It was understandable, two near and dear people in the same twenty four hours?

Silently I wondered if my dad or Satsuko, my uncle would be next.

-

When the police and hospital people came in running with a stretcher, also came the homicide detectives.

The homicide detectives pronounced the body dead on first glance, the men laid the body on a strectcher and draped a cloth over it.

"Any money for a funeral?" the main detective asked.

He was young and I mean really young. Like fresh out of high school young. Like so good that once he was done with high school he was put right on this team young.

I looked up at him and my mouth formed a silent 'O' of shock, unbeknownst to me. He was barely two or so years older than me, and he was hot.

But one can never mistake looks, ne?

The same man I had been ogling cast a glance around the room and his eyes stopped on me. "Hello, there." And he smiled. "What's a pretty girl like you doing there crying?"

He was way too much of a gentleman to grope a woman. The co-workers had all been expecting the grope and the slap that almost always followed unless the woman was too dumb to realize he was taking advantage of her.

But they had come to expect it. No matter how pretty a woman was; that man would never lay a hand on a grieving lady. It would be just too much for them to handle, and he would save it until they could handle it.

I smiled looking up at him, and he extended his hand. I accepted it and he pulled me to my feet. "Well?" he questioned again. It wasn't an exasperated tone, simply a curious one.

"My mother, she died and well… My brother died not even a day ago." I explained trying to hide the tears. They had come into existence now.

Someone brushed against the stereo, and it turned on eerie music that sounded too much like Evanescence to be mistaken for anything but. "I've woken now to find myself,

in the shadows of all I have created. I'm longing to be lost in you, away from this place I have made. Won't you take me away from me?"

I could relate to songs but the words went right through my head and straight to my heart, I crumpled to the ground about to sob, but the young detective caught me just in time.

"Isn't it odd that both of her cherished family members are dead in the same twenty four hours?" He asked aloud, puzzled by the very thought.

"Think nothing of it Houshi. It's not unusual, she probably killed herself."

"I want to look into it further though."

"If you want to waste your time, you may do so Houshi. But don't complain when you run into a dead end."

Everyone walked off the scene, taking the body with them. But Kagome and the head detective stayed.

"Hey, if your going to stay at least tell me your name." I said firmly, a question/answer like statement.

"My name? But you must tell me yours after." He said, a confident air about him.

"Alright. Name?"

"Miroku Houshi. Name?"

"Sango Tajiya."

And a pact was formed then and there…

And for a few moments, Sango forgot her mother was dead.

-

Inu Kaiba: That's it, I can't wrote anymore…. I've been writing and updating so much. It haunts me dammit… I want to go read dreamland and so I shall. I hope people will read with a new summary! I'm obsessed with Evanescence, anyways, I'll update soon. Probably in five days XD… This sucked, I rushed it, sorry.

-Inu Kaiba


	4. Catch Me As I Fall

Inu Kaiba: If this chapter is somewhat… Um… Short of enjoyment, and sort of not thought through, or mostly boring… it's because I'm stuck. Because I want to take up space, I will tell you that my friend is sending me 4 manga books, and that yesterday I spent 35 dollars on posters of anime characters, which took two hours to hang them all up. Hopefully informing you of this will get me to the word limit sooner. Not 2,000 words like the rest. Why? Because at this point I don't have an idea for two of my stories that will last me too 2,000 words.

Inspiring songs are coming back again at the end of this chapter. Kylie rockz!

And what a short lived time that was.

In those few minutes of forgetting her mom, Sango became engrossed in Miroku, who must have been one of the hottest guys this side of earth. But then he reached out and groped her and she slapped him on the face so hard, there's most likely be a big purple bruise there, and hopefully a shiner in the eye from where she punched him.

"YOU!" Sango shrieked stepping away from him. "You just want a night on the town, and then to take some innocent girl to bed with you. Well, I'm not in on it. Get the fuck away from me, my mother and my home. I'll solve this mystery without some fucker like you."

"But Sango."

"To think… I thought I could trust you. But all men are the same. They're all looking for the same thing. Sex."

"But Sango!"

"Forget it. You broke my trust. Try earning it back again. But right now I don't want to see you. I want to be alone with my friend and my mother and not some fucker like you."

With that said and done, she shoved Miroku out and slammed the drawer on his face.

"Just remember you can't stay there without a guardian!"

"I have my uncle!" Sango yelled back. "Not that it's any of your business."

"If you don't have a guardian, you're too young to stay by yourself. I'll be back tomorrow when you're in a better mood to see if this 'uncle' of yours really does exist."

"Not hoping to see you then." Sango yelled through the door, pissed off even more that he was making up another excuse to come back, just so he could get her trust back like she said he'd have to earn. But she never wanted to see him again, he was hindering her more than helping.

"Kagome…" Sango said. "Can you do me a favor?" she added blinking back tears.

"Yes I can; what kind of favor?" Kagome replied.

"Can… can you hug me while I cry?" Sango sobbed out tears running down her face in a steady stream. "And… and… Can … Can I stay at your house until my mom's funeral?"

"Of course." Kagome said wrapping her bare uncovered arms around her best friend, who was dressed in long sleeves and jeans, while she was wearing a t-shirt and skirt.

Sango just lay in Kagome's arms crying her eyes out, crying and crying, just crying all her problems and fears out, crying to get it out of her system, crying because her life was a mess, crying, crying, crying.

When Sango's waterfall of tears slowed, and her body was only heaving with sobs, Kagome helped her to her feet and led her to a chair. "Stay here." She said.

Then she pulled some plastic gloves on and moved Sango's mother's body up to her bedroom, putting the blankets over her head so that the body would be safe and preserved warm for the funeral. Then she descended the stairs pulling each glove off with a rubbery 'shlop'.

Kagome carefully deposited the used gloves in the trash bin and walked over to Sango. "I'm going to call my mom and ask her if its okay that you stay at our home until the funeral. Alright?"

Sango nodded slowly. She felt like her friend was treating her like a child, but she understood that after crying like that to her friend, her friend wasn't ruining her dignity, but simply trying not to make her cry again.

"I doubt she'll say no after what you've been through. Your mother and brother dead in the same 24 hours? It's a miracle you can go on the way you are. Now I want you to go up to your room and gather up everything you'll need while at my house. Toothbrush, toothpaste, clothes, toiletries, backpack and textbooks and save any projects you're working on to floppies. But I want you to stay home ok? I'll bring home your homework, I don't think you'll be able to handle school."

I nodded and slowly headed upstairs, pausing at the top of the stairs and holding the banister.

"What the hell has happened to my life?" I said to myself staring out the picture window in the downstairs living room. "What does god have against me?"

She could almost swear she heard a voice saying, "Absolutely nothing…"

Sango raced around her room grabbing everything, books, papers, pens… She even had her computer on and was transferring her half complete or completed projects to floppies.

She ran to the background and knocked over a bottle of dish soap while reaching for some Clearasil and her makeup bag. "God dammit!" she shrieked.

"Kagome… Did I just hear someone yelling in the background….?"

"Yeah. That's Sango running around finding her every day necessities in ten minutes. See, she's probably lost them all along with her head…"

Sango was swearing bloody murder in every language she could. "MY god, why me, why dish soap, why does it have to be so hard to clean up…"

Sango slammed the dish soap bottle into where the tub was but missed and squirted it all over the walls.

"Fucking hell!" She shrieked moving as fast as she could to do a quick clean up.

"Come on Sango!" Kagome yelled. "I have school tomorrow, and mom's ordered pizza so we gotta get home."

Sango grabbed her bags and ran down the store leaving half a wall covered in dish soap. "Ah well, I can clean it later." She said to herself.

When she rushed out the door and saw Kagome standing still she ran up to her. "Kagome… What's wrong?"

"Hey bitch…" InuYasha said. He was looking for revenge and he was going to get some. He still had the slap mark on his cheek and it was bright red.

"Don't slap those that are higher than you. Or in this case… Don't touch people until you know what you're dealing with."

"Mm…" he continued, walking over and grabbing Kagome;s chin. "What wopuld make a pretty girl like you squirm?"

"Forced to work at one of those whore bars?"

"Being jailed?"

"Being raped?"

"Being killed?"

"Using her friend?"

"Wait the rape one sounds good." InuYasha said. "Grab her and let's go."

"Let her go!" Sango screamed trying to hit InuYasha with her bag.

"Leave us alone unless you wish to suffer the same fate as her. I'll let you go if you walk away right now."

Then someone grabbed her from behind, and shoved her in the ground, shoving her face into the ground until she couldn't breathe. She fell unconscious, though she distinctly thought she heard InuYasha's voice and the pounding of steps. Very faint, but she knew she heard it before all went black.

Inu Kaiba: This took forever to write. Please review.

Inu Kaiba


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